Notice: Undefined variable: cache_path in /chroot/home/audaudco/audaud.com/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-super-cache/wp-cache-phase1.php on line 24
Notice: Undefined variable: wp_cache_not_logged_in in /chroot/home/audaudco/audaud.com/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-super-cache/wp-cache-phase1.php on line 52
Notice: Undefined variable: cache_enabled in /chroot/home/audaudco/audaud.com/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-super-cache/wp-cache-phase1.php on line 64

Wolf Totem, Blu-ray 3D (2015) - Audiophile Audition

AUDIOPHILE AUDITION is a free international online magazine for audio buffs, record collectors and music lovers, publishing up to 100 disc reviews monthly of classical, jazz, pop, movies, documentaries, and operas on Blu-ray and DVD, vinyl, CDs and hi-res formats.

This was director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film adaptation of a novel by Jiang Rong, and a Chinese/American coproduction shot among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia. During the so-called Cultural Revolution, a young student from Beijing is sent to live for two years among the tribesmen in Mongolia. They struggle to keep their place in the world between the advance of civilization from the south and their traditional enemies – the wolves.

The student flaunts the rules by capturing a wolf cub and instead of killing it, makes a hidden hole in the ground and raises it as his pet. A commissar in charge of the herdsmen is involved in the story, as well as the widow of a tribesman who is killed. The cinematography of the gorgeous Mongolian scenery is amazing, especially in 3D, and the acting and action is entirely believable. The crew used a Canadian “wolf whisperer,” and spent three years raising the Mongolian wolves in the film from cubs that became close to their human trainers. The extras should be seen first, because they really round out understanding of what you see in the film. Annaud reports that Hollywood usually uses dogs as wolves in films, but they are entirely different. You’ll probably have a completely different understanding of wolves after watching this amazing film.

There is quite a bit of killing of wolves that may be hard for some to take, but the general feeling of the film is lovely. The final scene is the student preparing to return to Beijing, saying goodbye to the now-grown wolf cub in the distance, who has been freed.